


Smallville, DE

by twriting



Series: Where in the World Is (Smallville/Metropolis/Gotham)? [1]
Category: Superboy (Comics)
Genre: Bronze Age, Silver Age, Smallville - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-07 15:43:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20819783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twriting/pseuds/twriting
Summary: Background notes about Smallville for my Supergirl/Cantrell Kent stories.





	1. Smallville

Smallville, DE.

Delaware?

Yep.

In the Silver and Bronze Ages of comics Smallville was portrayed as a generic Eastern small town, just a few miles inland from the coast. The architecture, surrounding terrain, and the local farms were all something you might find in the Saturday Evening Post's version of Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or anywhere on the generic Eastern Seaboard. Ma and Pa Kent were retired farmers who moved to town to run an old-fashioned general store. DC comics published a map that showed Smallville somewhere on the Delmarva Peninsula, while other in-story comments located it in Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

In 1977 the Superman movie moved the Kent family farm to rural Kansas and had Clark still living on the farm as a high school student. They probably did this to visually emphasis the difference between Clark's old-fashioned rural upbringing and big-city Metropolis. The comics and a couple of novels from the era followed suit and placed Smallville in Kansas. However, they didn't change the visuals of the place or that teenaged Clark lived in town rather than on a farm.

Following the Crisis On Infinite Earths reboot DC fully updated its portrayal of Clark's early years, with Clark growing up on a farm near Smallville, Kansas. He went to school there but otherwise lived in a fully rural setting. This is the Smallville most people are now familiar with.

Given that I've already decided that my genderbent-Clark grew up in rural Kansas, and is considered country even by country standards, it's a little odd that I've decided to move Smallville back to Delaware. Basically I've done this because I liked the old Superboy stories and I wanted to play in an updated version of the setting. There are obvious and not-so obvious changes that need to be made, but I'm going to use Silver Age small-town Smallville as the foundation for a modern small city in Delmarva.

I'll start with the map. If you search for Smallville maps you'll find this image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Smallville_silver_age_map.jpg

This map is representational and physically impossible. It's a map of more-or-less where things are in relation to one another, but it's not big enough to house the 10000-15000 citizens that Silver Age Smallville supposedly had. Assuming those are small city blocks, the whole thing can fit in about 40 acres. So instead of being the whole town, it's the town centre, a planned community with a rigid street grid that breaks down outside of the centre.

In keeping with Smallville's generic and not very interesting local history I've decided that Smallville started as a temperance town in the late 19th Century. It's core is the Old Purchase, ~40 acres bought by the Small family that lead the temperance settlers. The temperance aspects of the community were dropped not long after the purchase, mainly because the town was successful and attracted more newcomers than the planners expected. Any interesting history dating back to the US Civil War or before belongs to the older communities in the region. Smallville is quiet.

Judging by the art in the old Superboy comics, Black people were not invented until the early 1980s. There are towns in the Delmarva Peninsula that are close to 100% White, but I have trouble imaging Jonathan and Martha choosing to move their kid to one of those places. There are also towns in the region with much more diverse populations, and I'll use the demographics from one of them as the basis for Smallville.

I'm going to make Smallville a college town, because in the Silver Age there were at least two titled academics in the town - Professors Potter and Lang. But it's a small campus of Delaware's community college, and mainly focuses on agriculture, mechanics, small business programs, and similar diplomas. It's known for a good mechatronics program. Smallville in the Silver Age and in the TV series also had a surprisingly high transient population, so adding the college keeps that.

Smallville is a small city, but it's still a city. It needs more than just agriculture and a campus to keep its economy running. Smallville is close to Baltimore and Wilmington, and reasonably close to a couple of other cities, and it has always been portrayed as safe and picturesque. So it's also a tourist town, and that helps with keeping up the transient population. And as a tie-in to the larger DC universe I'll add a small tech company, a growing start-up recently bought out by Steve Dayton (An engineer/inventor linked to the Doom Patrol and Teen Titans). Pete Ross's and Lex Luthor's fathers work for this company as a project manager and a PR representative (Their mothers are a lawyer and a real estate agent, respectively).

I'll move a few locations out of the core of Smallville - There's no room for any sort of utilities station in the Old Purchase, and that high school and sports stadium would have to be tiny. And I'll update a few of the businesses, and add some touristy locations. But basically the map of Smallville works as a general outline of a small community that the Kents felt comfortable raising their kid in. Large enough for her to experience some of the diversity of America, small enough for them to keep an eye on her as she tries to find her way in an urban area.

Those are the general notes. Now for the specifics.

Smallville replaces Harrington, Delaware west of Railroad Avenue, with the middle edge of the map being located at the end of Harrington's Clark Street (Yes, it's named after Martha's family). Harrington still has about 3500 people, just sprawled out towards the east. The presence of Smallville has changed the character of Harrington from the real world town. Harrington's lots and homes are larger than Smallville and the population is more White. Harrington also has an Army National Guard facility.

Smallville's streets were originally numbered, but in '50s the Old Purchase's streets were renamed after various presidents. First-Second-Third and so on start west of Columbia Street. Smallville's avenues are named after trees.

Smallville's economy is based on agriculture, government and educational services, tourism, and some light manufacturing and craftwork. There is a new tech company on the east side of Smallville, part of a state diversification program.

Smallville is a popular tourist destination from Wilmington and Baltimore and was probably listed in the Green Book as a relatively friendly area for Black travellers. Most of the farm houses immediately around the town are hobby farms or B&Bs that lease their fields to real farmers. The majority of the farming in the area is dairy, chicken, or market garden and fruit.

There is an intercity transit shuttle connecting Smallville to the surrounding communities, including Milford, Dover, and Burrsville.

Smallville, including the Old Purchase and North and West Smallville, has about 9700 people. Including Harrington and surrounding regions the area's population is about 15000. Smallville has a higher crime rate than big city people would expect from a town, but it's right on track for a small city with a high transient population in a semi-rural area.

Smallville Population ~9700  
~5820 White  
~2648 Black  
~722 Latinx, all races (Majority Puerto Rican)  
~509 Other/Mixed  
~1 Kryptonian (Kandra)

The Map

Smallville's heart, the Old Purchase, is bounded to the north by Willow Street (State Highway on the map) and the South by Walnut Street (Last street beyond Maple), east by Railroad Avenue and west by Columbia Avenue. These 40 acres were purchased by William Small and sons as a planned temperance town in the late 19th Century. The Old Purchase houses about 1300 people and most of Smallville's government services.

The population density in the Old Purchase is surprisingly high. Most of the housing is on narrow lots with closely spaced buildings or in rowhouses and townhouses. Even the newer buildings have older architectural styles. Maple and Walnut Streets have narrow single-family houses on small lots. The Kents own two lots, the combined 321-323, with a rider in the original home construction agreement that the lots must be eventually broken up again or used for architecturally-appropriate townhouses. In keeping with the Old Purchase's historic nature and the demands of the regional tourism board, most of the businesses in the quarter are locally-owned or at least locally-fronted small shops. The central area's fast-food chains are located either on campus or along Willow Street.

Differences from the map:  
\- Street numbers run east-west out from Railroad Avenue. The Kents are corner-lot 321, the Langs at 325 are west of the Kents.  
\- The Kent General Store on Oak Street is the Clark Dollar Store & Discount Grocery.  
\- The train station is replaced with Blue Hen Rapid Prototyping Technologies, a former start-up backed by the state and recently bought by tech billionaire Steve Dayton. The company designs 3d printing devices.  
\- The map legend is the site of a community college, the Smallville campus of Delaware Technical Community College. The college is known for good diploma programs in mechatronics, industrial automation, and electromechanics.  
\- The Smallville Stadium and High School are replaced by touristy open-air shopping and Olde Tyme 'historical experiences'. Smallville Junior/Senior High School is located on the west side of Columbia Avenue, just outside the map between Main and Elm, in West Smallville. There are various shops located just south and west of the school for the junk food and shoplifting needs of the city's teens.  
\- Smallville Elementary is a pre-school/kindergarten. Smallville's elementary schools are located outside of the Old Purchase.  
\- The Smallville Utility Co is a townhouse complex.  
\- Walnut Street is added to the map as the last street past Maple. The east end of Walnut has a convenience store, a bar, and a mix of small shops and eateries catering to students.The rest of the street is a mix of homes and B&Bs.  
\- The green spaces south of Smallville (south side of Walnut Street) are experimental fields run by the college and state agriculture department. These fields are fenced to keep out townies, tourists, and drunk students. The fences don't work.  
\- The bus station on Willow is replaced by a county emergency services centre.  
\- Motel Row and the roller skating rink are replaced by chain restaurants: Bibbo's Louisiana Fried Chicken, Big Belly Burger, O'Shaughnessy's, Sundollars, and Taco Whiz.  
\- The Superboy Museum is replaced by Smallville's original school building, moved from its former location at the site of the community college, and is maintained as part of the Smallville Museum.  
\- The Kents do not have a secret tunnel leading to the woods, but they do have a large basement.  
\- The synagogue is still a synagogue, but most of Smallville's Jewish population live outside of the Old Purchase.

Between Lex Luthor, inventor/instructor Finn Potter, and the college's technical programs, there will be lots of technological terrors for Cantrell to fight. Kids need exercise.

A Superboy Museum? Down the street from where you live? A giant billboard welcoming people to Smallville: The Home Of Superboy? Clark you dunderhead, this is why you have so much trouble keeping a secret identity.

Off The Map

North Smallville and West Smallville both have about 4000-4200 people. Their population densities are higher than Harrington or most of Delaware's small towns, but lower than the Old Purchase. North covers about 270+ acres, West about 330+ acres.

In North Smallville the blocks are longer along the avenue sides, and the grid plan breaks down as you go north. The city's Black population is concentrated in the North and northwest. North Smallville is bounded to the east by the railroad and Harrington. North Smallville has the local football stadium along Washington Avenue, a new shopping complex, and a couple of schools with a lot of bused-in rural students.

In West Smallville the blocks are longer along the street sides, and the grid plan breaks down as you go west. West Smallville has the majority of Smallville's immigrant population. West Smallville also has the city's Latintown, centred around the 800 block of Peachtree and Cherry Streets. The majority of Smallville's Latinx population are US citizens from Puerto Rico. There are a couple of utility stations in West Smallville, as well as the area's biggest high school.

In the northwest the two grids merge around two former country paths, with the boundary between North and West being either West Road or Branch Road depending on who's talking. The best soul food and Puerto Rican restaurants in town are just outside of Willow Street and Columbia Avenue.


	2. Smallville Supporting Cast

Presented in (Kryptonian) alphabetical order by surname.

Bashford, Brad

Who? One of Superboy's supporting cast from the Silver/Bronze Age. An arrogant jock who hits on Lana, mocks Clark for being a wimp and a coward, wants people to call him 'Bash', and generally doesn't have much personality other than being an overbearing jackass. The closest we get to deep characterization is finding out that he thinks Christmas has become too commercial.

On the other hand Brad 'the Bash' Bashford is very much a Boys Adventure arrogant small-town sports hero, which means he has lines he won't cross. He doesn't gang up on weaker kids, his idea of hazing is to dare people to do something stupid and call them chicken when they don't, and he's overly persistent with girls but keeps his hands to himself and can take no for an answer. He's a jerk, not a creep or a predator. You can't see Brad hanging his girlfriend's jewelry on a younger kid, beating and stripping the kid, and then leaving that kid bound half-naked in a field.

It's implied that Brad is from a single-parent poor family. The Kents are middle class and the Langs, Ross family, Sullivans, and Luthors are all middle or upper middle class, so keeping Brad and his mom around adds another perspective on life in Smallville.

Brad works as-is, as an obnoxious pain in the ass who thinks he's a great guy. The exact source of his pain-in-the-assness is different for Cantrell than it was for Clark, but Bash Bradford hasn't changed since the 60s.

In his first Silver-Age appearance Brad gained temporary superpowers after being struck by lightning while eating space-bananas.

Sullivan, Chloe

An import from the Smallville TV series. Chloe was created to fill the combined roles of Silver-Age Lana and Lois - The girl next door with a crush, the reporter who digs too deeply into Clark's secrets, the damsel in distress with a talent for tripping into life-threatening situations. She's not strictly needed to fill these roles outside of the show, but she's still a fun character. She's persistent, bright, knows what she wants to do in her life, has a deep love of weirdness, but in a lot of ways she's more conventional than she likes to admit. Chloe manages to be a mentor to her friend Clark, and is an important part of who he becomes in later life. She also brings an important dose of snark to the story.

Chloe works as-is, with no real need for adjustment. Just because there are no people mutated by weird rocks doesn't mean there isn't lots of low-key DC Comics weirdness for her to be fascinated by. Cantrell needs a girl-friend who isn't also her girlfriend, and Chloe can point out that _Lana, it doesn't count as a closet if you don't close the door_.

Chloe was created in part to add a bit of ethnic diversity to the Smallville cast, but as soon as they cast a Black kid as Pete Ross they made Chloe a White girl. I guess when it comes to non-White kids in TVland Kansas, there can be only one. This Chloe is a mixed-race girl who dyes her hair blonde because she likes the colour, and she's easily pissed off when people say or imply that she's trying to hide her Black parentage. Regardless of race Chloe's a snarky nerd who loves to tell people about all the weird stuff in the world.

Fordman, Whitney

Poster child for creepy asshole jocks. Dates younger girls, is violently possessive of his girlfriend, gets his kicks by assaulting kids who are younger and weaker than himself, and is just generally a nasty piece of work. The TV show tried to show him growing out of it, but failed by not acknowledging just how vicious his behaviour was and letting him escape any confrontations with his victims. Actually having to confront the consequences of his actions would have gone a long way to making Whitney's maturation seem more real.

His death in combat could have been an opportunity for Clark to learn that you don't have to be a perfect person to make great sacrifices for others, but instead was just presented as generically Heroic and Inspirational.

Having two jerk jocks on hand to annoy Cantrell seems redundant, but the contrast in type of jerk has its own story potential.

Ross, Pete

A non-entity in every incarnation. A nice guy with a nice smile, Clark's best friend for reasons known only to Clark. Generically brave, loyal, and cheerful, with no hobbies or interest beyond those needed to drive the plot. His parents are variously shown as being either generic middle-class or involved in business and law.

Originally Pete was presented as another out-of-towner who seemed to be causing trouble for Superboy, but in a twist we discover that he just wanted to hang out with Clark. Which might be why Clark liked him; Pete was the only person he'd met who thought _Clark Kent_ was cool. I'll keep him as a new kid without many friends in Smallville. I'll also add some life to Pete with a few simple steps.

Step One: Keep the bland nice guy personality. Brave, loyal, cheerful - Pete is a reliable, no-drama guy. He's a good guy to hang around with, people like to talk to him, and he can keep his mouth shut if you tell him something important.

Step Two: In Pete's first Silver-Age appearance he's involved with a school theatre production (He also knows Superboy's inseam, because that was public knowledge back in the day). Keep that. Pete's a theatre nerd, and he does costuming. Also Pete's not flashy, but he's a good dresser.

Step Three: Pete's from Baltimore. His parents are Black professionals who have worked hard to get to where they are. They were worried that their son was just a bit too comfortable in his old neighbourhood, so they move to Smallville to force Pete out of his complacency.

My Pete Ross is everybody's second-best friend. Pete and Cantrell bond over being newcomers, and become friends by the combined power of their goofy niceness.

Pete thinks of himself as being trapped in the most boring town on Earth. He hasn't noticed that since he started posting about Smallville his social media accounts have lit up like New Years in China.

Lang, Lana

In her first appearance Lana Lang moves in next door to Clark and _immediately_ sees through Clark's disguise. Over various stories she breaks into the Kent family business, uses police evidence kits to bag and tag scraps left behind by Superboy/Clark, keeps cross-referenced and annotated files on her boyfriend/celeb-crush, and risks her life to prove that she's right. Silver Age Lana is sharp and persistent bordering on stalker-obsessive. She swings between incredibly sweet and incredibly catty with no warning. Bronze Age Lana losses the obsessive edge, has a career, and moves on from her failed relationship with Superman, but remains sharp and persistent, and can still go from nicest girl you know to complete bitch in 0.03 seconds.

I'm going to ignore the Post-Crisis Lana because wow, what a misogynistic trainwreck that was. And I'm going to ignore the Smallville TV Lana, because at least until later seasons the actress just wasn't given anything to work with other than _pretty_ and _nice_. I have no idea what's happening with Lana in this week's DC Comics reboot. She has superpowers now maybe?

Lana is originally shown as a newcomer to Smallville but later presented as someone who grew up there. For my stories Lana is a newcomer but her mother Sarah grew up in the area and her uncle (Phineas "Please call me Finn" Potter) teaches at the community college. Mom and Lana have moved to Smallville from Philadelphia due to Professor Lewis Lang putting work above family (Entirely consistent with his portrayal in the comics; Dude was never home unless the plot forced him to be).

My Lana is observant, smart, persistent, and has lousy personal boundaries. She also keeps the mood swings, both because she's basically a nice girl with a quick temper and because she's having a rough adolescence. The only hobbies we ever see Lana enjoying are stereotypically 1950s-60s girly things, so I'll keep that. Lana is a very heavily gendered girl, stereotypically feminine in ways both positive and negative. She likes being girly.

Despite being all over Cantrell, Lana loudly identifies as straight. Her stereotypical cattiness to other girls is a defence mechanism. See the previous bit about 'having a rough adolescence'.

Luthor, Lex

Silver/Bronze Age Young Luthor: Troubled asshole-genius who is way too smart to be in high school. Idolizes Albert Einstein but is otherwise fascinated by criminals and conquerors. Luthor meets his other idol, Superboy, who recognizes Lex's genius and builds a laboratory for him. Lex uses the lab to create synthetic life but thanks to his sloppy lab techniques starts a fire. Superboy saves Lex's life but in the process Lex's creation is destroyed with no way to recreate it (As a mad scientist Lex lives by the dual creeds of No OHSA Compliance and No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup). After being failed by his idol and scarred in the accident he tries to rebuild his self-worth with ambitious but poorly thought out engineering projects. Mocked and rejected by the people of Smallville when those projects become a series of embarrassing screw-ups, he turns to crime, gets kicked out by his family, escapes from juvie by hijacking a military helicopter and stealing a 20 megatonne nuclear bomb, and quickly degenerates to...

Silver/Bronze Age Adult Luthor: A man who blew up an inhabited world by accident because he got bored and started playing with his version of matches. Builds doomsday machines capable of slaughtering millions, uses them to extort governments, and then leaves the machines running out of petty spite. An angry narcissist with the mind and destructive potential of a god. Rebooted as...

Early Post-Crisis Luthor: A common manipulator, rapist, and murderer. A dime a dozen corrupt executive. Realistic, but the sort of minor villain that reporters like Lane and Kent take down on a monthly basis. I think it was Kurt Busiek who pointed out that letting this version of Luthor run on as long as he did just made Superman and the Daily Planet look ineffectual. It's amazing that the animated Superman show managed to make this guy interesting.

My Luthor is basically the Silver Age teen Luthor. Lex gets along with most people his own age, but has a serious attitude problem when it comes to dealing with cops, teachers, and other adult authority figures, with a habit of flying off the handle when they get in his way (Officially this is oppositional defiant disorder). He has ADHD, which explains a lot about his approach to workplace safety. He's arrogant, very aware of his genius, and holds his parents in contempt for their treatment both of himself and his older sister. Some day everyone will understand that he deserved better than being dragged down by those dullards. With no Superboy around Lex idolizes Albert Einstein and is fascinated by outlaws and conquerors. He's not a threat to anyone but himself at this point, but if things go wrong for him he could very easily spiral into destructive narcissism.

Lex is often presented as being older than Clark. This Lex is two years older than Cantrell but has been held back in school due to an accident where he forgot to ask permission before borrowing a teacher's car and turning it into a high-performance race car. And he stole forty cakes.

Lex is scared of Lana. He knows yandere when he sees it.

The Pre-Crisis Luthor family are... boring. They're not presented as abusive or obviously dysfunctional, but they are very conventional (Dad is in sales, mom is a housewife) and they have horrible coping mechanisms for dealing with their unconventional children. After their eldest child runs away from home to marry a rich sugardaddy they never talk about her again, and after Lex goes off the rails they change their family name and tell pre-schooler Lena that her big brother died in a car crash. Simply put they are an average couple who just want to live safe ordinary lives and are utterly unequipped to deal with two brilliant and unconventional children.

One difference here is that the Kents recognize that their daughter is kinda interested in Lex. Since actually trying to straighten the kid out would just make him dig in his heels, they try to give him a couple of nudges in the right direction.

Wayne, Bruce

In the Silver Age young Clark and Bruce are shown to have briefly met when Bruce's car broke down in Smallville (This made sense back when canon-Smallville was still somewhere on the East Coast). Clark tried to be friendly to the loner Bruce, but they didn't really hit it off until later stories where they fought crime together. In the various Post-Crisis stories about their first encounter, Bruce and Clark meet as adults and get along like a house on fire, complete with screams, sirens, fleeing civilians, and massive property damage.

In Cantrell's story it's highly unlikely for Bruce to ever show up in Smallville. Not impossible, but it would be weird. Gotham is relatively nearby, but there's no reason for the heir of a multi-billion fortune to visit a place like Smallville.

On the other hand, bringing Bruce in gives an excuse to bring in his childhood friend Zatanna Zatara and her father, Giovanni Zatara. Which would be a nice touch, given that Giovanni Zatara first appeared in Action Comics #1...

And on the other other hand, the episode _Banged Behind The Bleachers By The Boy Billionaire_ would make their first reunion as adults so awkward.


End file.
